07-16-2012, 09:17 AM
I worked briefly at one of the plants you link to. Aircraft parts have been hauled by rail at least since World War II, when the Santa Fe especially raised the roofs on auto cars in order to accommodate B-24 production, and possibly other planes. Sunshine Models did urethane kits for these, and I think the Westerfield raised-roof Santa Fe box may have been used in this service, too.
I have one of the Huberts cars:
I think this is based on a prototype that had drawings and/or photos in Mainline Modeler. Huberts had a number of paint schemes for this basic car, but I believe only this one was close to a prototype. Concept models has some very basic urethane kits for other types of cars at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.con-sys.com/aircraft_parts.htm">http://www.con-sys.com/aircraft_parts.htm</a><!-- m -->
In many cases, the cars were built to accommodate the specific type of aircraft or rocket whose parts were being shipped, so they're of various unique designs. I think the most common cars were used to ship 747 body parts from various subcontractors to Boeing near Seattle, and that would include the Hubert's car. The GN/BN had cars of the general type shown, some or all of which had well recesses in the floor in addition to the cowls. The SP had several different types, one of which was covered by an Ambroid wood kit <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trainweb.org/ambroidkits/trains/woodkits/Ambroid_H-Cars.htm">http://www.trainweb.org/ambroidkits/tra ... H-Cars.htm</a><!-- m --> (scroll down). A later version seems to have used the same fishbelly flat car base (originally built for the SP to carry farm equipment) but with a longer cowl with end doors. I've scratchuilt some models of these and will post some drawings I made and photos of a model later. These were used at least for 747 body parts between Hawthorne, CA and Seattle, as well as FA/18 tail assemblies between Hawthorne and McDonnell Douglas in St Louis. Some of these cars had COTS stencils indicating service between Chula Vista, CA and St Louis as well. As far as I can see, these later SP cars were as close as things got to a "standard" aircraft flat. Some of the Concept Models type cars also turned up in Hawthorne.
You're certainly right that such cars would be a welcome change to a shoebox ISL. The SP and later UP handled them a lot in the LA basin, and they were also common on the I-5 corridor -- often right behind the loco so the crew could keep an eye on them, since they were excess height.
Reinhard?
I have one of the Huberts cars:
In many cases, the cars were built to accommodate the specific type of aircraft or rocket whose parts were being shipped, so they're of various unique designs. I think the most common cars were used to ship 747 body parts from various subcontractors to Boeing near Seattle, and that would include the Hubert's car. The GN/BN had cars of the general type shown, some or all of which had well recesses in the floor in addition to the cowls. The SP had several different types, one of which was covered by an Ambroid wood kit <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trainweb.org/ambroidkits/trains/woodkits/Ambroid_H-Cars.htm">http://www.trainweb.org/ambroidkits/tra ... H-Cars.htm</a><!-- m --> (scroll down). A later version seems to have used the same fishbelly flat car base (originally built for the SP to carry farm equipment) but with a longer cowl with end doors. I've scratchuilt some models of these and will post some drawings I made and photos of a model later. These were used at least for 747 body parts between Hawthorne, CA and Seattle, as well as FA/18 tail assemblies between Hawthorne and McDonnell Douglas in St Louis. Some of these cars had COTS stencils indicating service between Chula Vista, CA and St Louis as well. As far as I can see, these later SP cars were as close as things got to a "standard" aircraft flat. Some of the Concept Models type cars also turned up in Hawthorne.
You're certainly right that such cars would be a welcome change to a shoebox ISL. The SP and later UP handled them a lot in the LA basin, and they were also common on the I-5 corridor -- often right behind the loco so the crew could keep an eye on them, since they were excess height.
Reinhard?